


Uprooted

by calendulae



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, One Shot, dealing with loss of identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27625172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calendulae/pseuds/calendulae
Summary: "Nothing has been the same since she met Korra, and now, feeling for the spot inside her where the earth used to be, nothing would ever be the same.”Three conversations between Lin and Korra from the end of Book 1.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Korra
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	Uprooted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hydrangeas (themoonsneverseenmebefore)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themoonsneverseenmebefore/gifts).



> listen i don't know how this happened either but hydrangeas and i innocently watched LOK with no expectations and then experienced a lot of emotions and then enabled each other straight into rarepair hell. as hydrangeas said, "the avatar protects everyone but who protects the avatar?" (it's Lin) 
> 
> if you are here and you have not seen LOK this is pretty plot-specific and has some spoilers for the first season!

Lin is alone. Truly alone, she thinks, for the first time in her life. The thrum of the earth around her has gone silent, it’s sudden, visceral absence making her feel weightless and small. Her bending is gone, probably for good, but she can’t feel anything except a vast emptiness.   
  


She’d woken up on the ground sometime after Amon and his men had left her there, discarded in the rain. She had dragged herself to her feet, her armor now heavy and unwieldy, and started walking. Her first instinct was the police headquarters, but no, that wasn’t right, she wasn’t the chief anymore. Going to her dark, empty apartment and taking off her uniform, putting it away for what would be the last time, would make this all real in a way she wasn’t ready to face yet. So she walks through the deserted, shell-shocked streets of the city, trying to grasp what she’d lost. 

  
Her feet follow a familiar path through the park to a small gazebo where she occasionally comes to think. She pushes aside the willow branches that hide it from the path, recoiling when she sees a dark figure seated on the railing, one leg drawn up. They’re wearing the clothes of an Equalist, but there is something about the set of the person’s shoulders that makes her pause. A flash of moonlight through the leaves lights up the figure, and Lin quickly starts backing away. She can’t deal with-  
  


“Beifong? Is that you?”

Lin closes her eyes briefly, and slowly turns back around. “Avatar,” she manages, avoiding eye contact. Korra hops off the railing and walks towards her, her eyes widening. 

“You look— what happened? Why aren’t you with Tenzin and his family?”

Lin pushes her hair out her face where the rain had plastered it to her skin and turns away from Korra’s searching eyes, looking out over the water instead. 

“They got away. I was captured and Amon…” she trails off, her hand reaching up to brush the spot on her forehead where Amon had touched her. 

Korra’s hands fly to her mouth in shock. “No, no, not _you_ -” 

“Tenzin and his family got away. That’s all that matters,” Lin snaps. “And you’re supposed to be hiding, not out in the park in the middle of the night.”  
  
  
She tries to arrange her features into something authoritative, but the devastation on Korra’s face, the way she’s looking at Lin like she sees right through to her hollow core is too much. She quickly turns away, clenching her jaw. Do not cry. Do not cry in front of this girl of all people, this infuriating, naive girl who’s managed to turn Lin’s very respectably boring life upside down since the moment she crash landed in Lin’s city. Nothing has been the same since she met Korra, and now, feeling for the spot inside her where the earth used to be, nothing would ever be the same.

  
“I’m so sorry,” Korra says quietly. She seems like she wants to say something else, but instead reaches out to touch Lin’s shoulder. Lin jerks away, brushing her hand aside. 

“We’re safe underground,” Korra says. “There’s a hidden tunnel right over there, I just needed some air. Things are a little tense with...Sorry Chief, I’m rambling.”

“Not the Chief anymore.”

“Right. Force of habit, I guess.”

Lin nods, jerkily. They stand in silence, watching the still water of the bay. She wonders if Korra feels the elements the way Lin used to be able to feel the earth, its deep roots a well of strength and life grounding her center. A bond that sometimes felt more like a tether than anything else, the only thing left of— 

“My family,” she blurts out. “My mother. Earthbending was the last thing that tied us together. I wonder if they can somehow sense that I’m…” Lin feels Korra studying her, shifting on the balls of her feet a little, hesitant. Unusual for Korra. 

“I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” Lin says, running her hands down her face. “I don’t know why I’m even still here talking to you, of all people.”

“You can talk to me,” Korra says in that earnest way of hers. “We’re friends, right?” Lin hears the almost imperceptible pause before “friends”. 

“Something like that,” Lin says, looking over at Korra with a small smile. 

  
Korra reaches out, slowly, and puts her hand on top of Lin’s where it rests on the railing. Her hand is soft on Lin’s bare skin, and a sense of warmth slides up her arm and into her chest, easing the ache there. They lock eyes, and whatever the thing is that Lin has been tamping down these past few weeks sparks to life. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, there’s something between them. She’s known it since the night of the attack on the arena, when she let Amon get away in order to save Korra instead.She doesn’t do— she lets a brief vision of what would happen if she gave in to her desires tonight flit through her mind— whatever that would be. Whatever this is. She belongs alone. Even if she’s seen the way Korra has been watching her when she thinks Lin’s not paying attention.

  
Korra’s eyes dart down to her mouth. 

“You should get back,” she says, more gently than she means to, and pulls her hand away. Korra ducks her chin, and it’s hard to tell in the moonlight, but Lin thinks she might be blushing. 

“I’m sorry, again. And...thank you,” Korra says. She tries to smile at Lin but her mouth wobbles a little, and she slips away through the trees. Lin watches her go, making sure she gets underground safely.

She takes a deep breath, straightens her spine and starts walking towards home.

* * *

Lin is wide awake on her narrow bed in her cabin, trying to let the motion of the ship rock her to sleep. They’re sailing overnight to the South Pole, and everyone had retired to their rooms early after a quiet dinner, the mood heavy. Amon was gone, but it had come with a terrible price. Everyone was uncomfortably aware of the fact that Korra couldn’t be the Avatar anymore. She’d barely seemed to register anyone’s presence at dinner, eating mechanically and doling out some of the most unconvincing “ _I’m fine_ ”s Lin had ever heard. Tenzin had said Korra asked if she would come with them, but Lin isn’t sure why she’s here or what role she’s supposed to be playing in Korra’s story anymore, let alone her own.

There’s a knock on her door, and she quickly throws on a robe over her pajamas.

“What’s wrong?” she barks automatically as she opens the door, expecting Tenzin. “Is it K— oh.”

Korra is standing in her doorway, braced on the frame like it’s the only thing keeping her upright. Lin takes a step back, her breath catching in her throat. 

“Avatar— ”

“Not the avatar anymore,” Korra says with the ghost of a smirk, throwing Lin’s words back at her. Lin knows she should think Korra looks terrible, her eyes red and puffy and her hair wild, tangled around her shoulders, but to Lin she just seems vulnerable. 

“I didn’t know where else to go. Everyone is trying so hard to say the right things, trying to make me feel better, and I just...you’re the only one that knows- what it’s like.” Korra swallows hard and looks up at Lin through her hair.

Lin wordlessly opens the door for her and Korra slumps down on the edge of Lin’s bed, her head in her hands. Lin busies herself turning on a small lamp by the bed, the brightness down low, and then tentatively sits down next to Korra.

“Everyone keeps saying Katara can help, but...deep down I know even she won’t be able to fix this. It’s just gone, you know? Like this huge empty...nothingness inside me. There’s nothing there to heal.” She looks over at Lin, twisting her hands together in her lap. “Is that...what it’s like for you too?”

Lin nods. “Here,” she says, touching the spot under her sternum that feels wrong now. “That’s where it used to be, and now it’s just...not.”

Korra touches the same spot over her loose pajama shirt. 

“Who are we now?” she asks softly, and a tear slides down her cheek. Lin reaches out, without thinking, and brushes the tear away. She knows she shouldn’t, she knows she can’t, but still she keeps her hand on Korra’s face, tilting it up towards her and brushing her thumb over her cheekbone. 

Korra gazes up at her, her eyes huge and shining in the lamp light.

“Lin,” she whispers. “Please.” 

And Lin kisses her, gently at first and then harder when Korra returns it with a ferocity Lin hadn’t expected. She brings her other hand up to cup the back of Korra’s head as Korra’s hands find Lin’s waist, and a jolt of electricity runs through her at the contact. When was the last time she let someone touch her like this? How did Korra, of all people, find the cracks in Lin’s walls and bring them down?

Korra kisses like she fights, Lin thinks, as Korra’s hands run along her shoulders and trace the line of her hipbones, hungry and restless for more. Lin traces one of Korra's breasts through her shirt, and feels the small gasp it elicits against her neck. 

“Lin, I want...I need...” Korra pants, and there’s a note of desperation that surprises Lin and makes her draw back. Korra is flushed, her lips swollen, but the look on her face is so lost that it makes Lin’s heart clench. She knows that desperately grasping for something, anything to fill the missing parts of themselves won’t make them feel whole. She found that out long before her bending was taken away.

“Come here,” Lin says, laying down and opening her arms. Korra melts into them and lays her head on Lin’s chest. For right now, they can hold each other, and the solace that brings will be enough for tonight.

* * *

Lin thinks this might be the longest day of her life so far.

Korra had been gone when she’d woken up. Her absence had caused a small twinge of regret in Lin’s stomach, but they’d arrived at the South Pole shortly after and there’d been no time to examine her feelings about last night. Waiting anxiously all day, everyone privately searching for some glimmer of hope as Katara and Korra disappeared together, only to hear those devastating words confirm everything Lin had already known. 

She’s pacing back and forth in her guest bedroom, wondering if she should go in the snow after Korra, when Mako’s brother, the obnoxiously cheerful earthbender, bursts into her room without knocking. Of all the people she doesn’t want to talk to right now. And to make things worse he’s...smiling?

“Chief, you have to come, Korra’s asking for you! You won’t believe it!” 

“What the— ”

He grabs her arm and pulls her out of the room without waiting for a reply, ignoring her protests. They hurry down to the temple where the whole group is gathered. Korra stands alone at the top of the steps. Maybe it’s just the setting sun reflecting off the snow, but Lin could swear she is giving off a golden light that seems to suffuse everything around her. Korra reaches out her hand to Lin and guides her to kneel in front of her, and Lin doesn’t understand what’s happening, why is Korra smiling like that, she can’t grasp what’s going on until Korra rests one of her hands over Lin’s heart and the other on her forehead, the same spot Amon touched.  
  
Korra’s eyes begin to glow, an unearthly white light coming from deep inside her, and Lin suddenly feels the light enter her body, rushing through her like a powerful wind, filling up the hollow place in her center again with warmth and vitality and life. The earth sings around her and she’s not alone anymore, surrounded by the pulse of metal and soil, two far-off vibrations that she realizes are her mother and sister, and the soft touch of Korra’s hands bringing her roots back to life. She opens her eyes and looks up at Korra, no longer that cocky girl anymore but a luminous, powerful woman. 

When everyone has hugged and laughed and cried, they start trailing back to the house for an impromptu celebration. Lin hangs back, unnoticed, leaning against one of the boulders with her arms crossed and watching Korra. Korra is staring out over the ocean like she’s speaking with someone Lin can’t see. After a few seconds, she closes her eyes and bows deeply. She turns to start walking back alone, a lopsided smile on her face as she listens to the laughter of the group on the path ahead of them, before catching sight of Lin, who straightens up and walks towards her. 

Lin catches Korra’s hand in both of hers and presses it to the spot she’d touched last night.

“It’s not empty anymore,” Lin says. “You did this.”

“It wasn’t me,” Korra says, blushing. “Aang...” She trails off, staring at her hand on Lin’s chest. She meets Lin’s eyes for a second, the connection between them going taut. 

Lin holds her gaze. “No. It was you. Thank you, Korra.”

Lin lets Korra’s hand go, and they start walking back along the path. 

“You never called me Korra before.” 

“You had never called me Lin before last night either.” It was going to come up eventually, Lin thought. Might as well get it out in the open.

“Last night…” Korra starts. She takes a deep breath. “If you want to pretend that never happened, we could just...pretend it never happened...” 

Lin tries not to laugh at her expression. “Why would we do that?” 

“Well, we were both- wait. You don’t want to? And you do want to....?” 

Lin laughs and instead of responding, pulls Korra in again and kisses her. Korra kisses her back enthusiastically, so much so that they topple over into a pile of snow. Korra lands on top of Lin and Lin looks up at her, pushing a lock of hair back behind one of Korra’s ears. 

“I’ve wanted to for a while now,” she says.

Korra grins in response and kisses her again, and the stars come out as night falls around them.


End file.
